EXPO CHICAGO/2015

EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, is pleased to announce programming that has developed from a yearlong curatorial exchange between France and the United States in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the Institut français.
 
In 2014, Chicago-based curators Naomi Beckwith (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago) and Megha Ralapati (Hyde Park Art Center) traveled to France, and French curators Guillaume Désanges(independent curator and art critic) and Matthieu Poirier (independent art historian, critic and curator) traveled to Chicago for initial exploratory research trips organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy with the Institut français and EXPO CHICAGO. These cultural exchanges led to the formation of special projects including a residency embedded in Chicago’s South Side and a focused panel discussion on the architectural extension of abstract art since the 1960s, coinciding with EXPO CHICAGO, September 17–20, 2015. 
 
Rebuild Foundation: French Pavilion
 
Working with Rebuild Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by artist Theaster Gates in 2010, Guillaume Désanges conceived the idea of the French Pavilion, a collaborative project supported by Rebuild and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the Institut français, in the vibrant context of Chicago’s South Side. The aim of the Pavilion is to create an innovative platform based at Rebuild for short-term residencies of artists, curators, historians, cultural planners, critics, architects and others. Désanges will be in residence at Rebuild April 1–20. 
 
/Dialogues Panel: “Leaving the Canvas: Abstract Art and Architecture”
 
Returning as a core program of EXPO CHICAGO, /Dialogues—panel discussions presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—will feature a keynote panel on the state of abstract art conceived and moderated by curator Matthieu Poirier as part of the French-American Curatorial Exchange. In anticipation of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial, this conversation will feature Daniel Buren and Felice Varini, whose works both straddle boundaries of radical abstraction by spreading the latter into the real time and space experience of architectural sites. They will be joined by Nicolas Cattelain, whose personal collection focuses on art since the 1960s, and includes works that initiated this "environmental" logic by expanding abstract art to the architectural dimension, by artists of the seminal Perceptual, Kinetic and Optical art trends: ZERO, GRAV or Light & Space. 
 
Jackman Goldwasser Residency at Hyde Park Art Center
 
Representing Chicago in Paris, Hyde Park Art Center Residency and Special Projects Manager Megha Ralapati has selected Paris-based curator Muriel Enjalran to participate as part of the Jackman Goldwasser Residency, a platform for five artists and curators each year to take creative risks within their practice and expand their professional networks while living and working in Chicago. Enjalran's curatorial residency will consist of two research visits, one April 21–29 and a second during EXPO CHICAGO, and will continue the mission of the curatorial exchange. During these visits, Enjalran will expand her current work on artists’ changing relationship to public space as well as participate in a series of studio visits with Chicago artists, supported by the Institut français. 
 
EXPO CHICAGO/2015
EXPO CHICAGO returns to Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, September 17–20, 2015. Entering its fourth edition in 2015, EXPO CHICAGO presents artwork from 140 leading galleries around the world, including EXPOSURE—a section that affords younger galleries the opportunity to participate in a major international art fair. Attracting more than 32,500 visitors in 2014, EXPO CHICAGO continues to showcase the city as an international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community and collector base.